Corn is a good example as to how language is continually evolving and changing. Say corn to an
American today and they think Maize, big yellow seed cobs, but in ENgland we still say corn as a generic word to mean cereal crops, wheat barley etc.
From Dr Johnsons dictionary 1755
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Corn[/SIZE].
n.s. [corn, Sax.
korn, Germ. It is found in all the Teutonick dialects; as, in an old Runick rhyme,
Hagul er kaldastur corna.
Hail is the coldest grain.]
- The seeds which grow in ears, not in pods; such as are made into bread. Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground, and die, it abideth alone. John xii. 25.
The people cry you mock'd them; and, of late,
When corn was given them gratis, you repin'd. Sh. Coriolan.
- Grain yet unreaped, standing in the field upon its stalk. Why he was met even now,
Crown'd with rank fumiter and furrow-weeds,
Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow
In our sustaining corn. Shakespeare's King Lear.
Landing his men, he burnt the corn all thereabouts, which was now almost ripe. Knolles's History of the Turks.
Still a murmur runs
Along the soft inclining fields of corn. Thomson's Autumn.
- Grain in the ear, yet unthreshed. Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in his season. Job, v. 26.
- An excrescence on the feet, hard and painful; probably so called from its form, though by some supposed to be denominated from its corncous or horny substance. Ladies, that have your feet
Unplagu'd with corns, we'll have a bout with you. Shakesp.
The man that makes his toe,
What he his heart should make,
Shall of a corn cry woe,
And turn his sleep to wake. Shakespeare's King Lear.
Even in men, aches and hurts and corns do engrieve either towards rain or towards snow. Bacon's Natural History.
The hardest part of the corn is usually in the middle, thrusting itself in a nail; whence it has the Latin appellation of clavis. Wiseman's Surgery.
He first that useful secret did explain,
That pricking corns foretold the gath'ring rain. Gay's Past.
It looks as there were regular accumulations and gatherings of humours, growing perhaps in some people as corns. Arbuth.
Thus Lamb, renown'd for cutting corns,
An offer'd fee from Radcliff scorns. Swift.